~ Race Report: Bogus Basin Hillclimb ~

This past weekend, Josh and I participated in the annual Bogus Basin Hillclimb road bike race, both finishing mid-pack for our respective age and gender groupings.

While there may be nothing particularly glorious in finishing mid-pack, personally I was delighted with my performance, what with shaving off ten minutes from my best time of previously riding the course. In addition, as I am not a serious racer, but rather a serious enjoyer of the cycling, my approach to this race was casual. My goal for the race was primarily to have fun and secondarily to ride as strong and with good strategy as I could.

Leading up to the race, Josh and I only realized a few days in advance that the event was scheduled for this past Saturday. I had sorta been contemplating racing, but I had neither taken the time to find out when it was to occur, nor engaged in 'training'. With a few days lead time before the race, I decided it wasn't going to benefit me by starting up a training program (particularly, because for two days before the race, I had to go out of town for a work thing). Fortunately, my cycling has been very consistent these days. I have been trying to ride my bike on most days and I go to spinning class at the gym several times a week (where I do very strenuous intervals). Essentially, while I am not in racing form, I am in good 'seriously enjoying the cycling' form.

On the morning of the race, Josh and I got up early enough to go to the coffee shop and enjoy a coffee and morning treat. We then moseyed over to the race zone to pick up our ankle timer dealies, and then casually warmed up by riding around the neighborhoods. We also made certain to use the restroom prior to the start. Everyone else made sure to also use the restroom, so we stood in line for several minutes. While waiting, I enjoyed looking around at everyone and joking with Josh. I noted that most everyone appeared professionally dressed, wearing their most expensive gear, whereas I was wearing an old jersey that I selected primarily for comfort and my seriously ratty and torn up cycling shoes. Even Josh, for example, was wearing a pair of brand spankin' new S-Works shoes that must have cost half a fortune. Cycling gear aside, I was looking amazing, wearing my favorite earrings and a lovely shade of eye makeup.

As we lined up for the start of the race, I was all smiles with excitement! Then the race began and everyone became focused on jockeying for position. Considering that (1) this was my first road bike race ever, and (2) that I don't have much experience riding among a lot of other people, I started the race with insufficient assertiveness to get into a good position for advancing quickly. Instead, I got stuck amid a group of riders going at a much slower pace than I was ready to go. By the time that I wiggled my way free, the faster racers were well up the road. As I left the slower riders behind and tried to catch up with the faster riders, a big gap opened up between me and everyone else. For approximately the next 12 miles, I rode pretty much all by my lonesome, with no one off whom to draft. I always kept a close eye on the rider in front of me, usually spotting them well up the road, and felt continuously motivated to try to catch and pass the rider. This proved to be sufficient motivation and provided me with adequate adrenaline that I was able to catch and pass a lot of riders.

I will write that Josh's race experience was significantly different than mine. As he has considerable race experience, he was sufficiently assertive at the start to get out of the maze of riders and found a team of racers to ride with. He spent most of the race with them, and they all drafted off of each other and were able to maintain an awesome pace.

Despite riding most of the race alone, I had a wonderful time. I was feeling particularly strong and spunky, and I had put together a brand new music playlist that I was really enjoying. There were several times when I actually caught myself humming along to my tunes, existing in a musical euphoria.

The last several miles of the race were fairly eventful for me. It was at this point that I had advanced sufficiently that I was actually among other riders, which made my excitement and energy for the race increase. When I first found myself among other riders was, fortunately for them and unfortunately for me, when I was about to blow a big snot rocket. On bike rides, I tend to get a lot of mucous buildup and have only recently embraced the snot rocket, or farmer blow, rather than using tissues. This is sort of off topic, obviously, but the fact that I can blow a snot rocket while still riding my bike, coupled with the fact that I don't have to carry around snot-filled tissue paper for the duration of my ride, has convinced me of the utility of this mode of mucous management. I am, however, extremely conscientious about the circumstances under which I blow my snot rockets. I ensure that I do not hit anyone with my snot rocket and I also prefer for no one to see me blow a snot rocket. While riding with Josh, for example, I usually wait until he is in front of me, or I inform him of my plan and instruct him to back off and look away.

So anyway, there I was, racing along, when I decided to attempt a snot rocket. In compliance with Step One of snot rocketting, I looked around me to make sure I was not going to hit anyone. To my utter surprise, I discovered that there was a man drafting off of me! How long he had been there, I was unsure; how long he would remain there, I was also unsure. In any event, clearly I would not be blowing a snot rocket at that moment.

In hindsight, I believe that I may have been enjoying my musical playlist so much that I temporarily became unaware of riders behind me. Once I realized that someone was drafting off of me, I realized that there were more people around me than I had quite acknowledged. At this point in the course, I was well in the treeline and the road curves around so that I was not able to see riders very far ahead of me. With the man drafting off of me, I rode around a corner and saw another rider ahead of me, and my competitive instinct kicked into high gear as I began my 'silent attack' to catch and pass the mofo. Said "mofo", I realized upon my approach, was a boy of about 12 who I had seen earlier with his father while standing in line to use the restroom. The child was going at a good pace and seemed to be putting in a huge effort. (Note, in looking at the results, I have determined that this boy placed 17th in the 18 and under category, coming in a few seconds after me; and that his father placed 28th in the 50-59 category, coming in a few minutes after Josh). Based on that previous sentence, you may assume that I was able to catch and pass the boy, but not without considerable effort on my part, and with no assistance from the man (who I shall call Ronald) who continued to draft off me.

Exerting so much effort to pass a pre-pubescent boy had a somewhat deteriorating effect on my confidence and, once I passed him, felt mentally and physically exhausted. Sensing a drain on my energy, Ronald behind me moved up in front and allowed me to draft off of him. As he rode by, he complimented me on my pace and I made a sarcastic remark about how I left the kid in the dust. I drafted off him for several minutes until we came to the portion of the course just before where it levels off. My anticipation for the level portion right before the finishline had been growing and I was very excited about sprinting to the finish, particularly because at this point, Ronald and I had caught up to several other riders. One rider, I will call Ralph, made a hastily executed dash to create a gap between himself and everyone else... which might have been a nice strategy if he had waited a bit longer before executing his dash. Because of Ralph's timing for his dash, rather than creating a gap and dashing well ahead of anyone, he merely created a good opportunity for all of us to draft off of him and save our energy for the final sprint. Having watched countless hours of Tour de France footage with Josh, and listening to the commentary about riders' strategy, I felt that I had a good plan for my final pedal strokes to the finish.

After drafting off Ralph and really saving the energy in our legs, Ronald and I broke away from Ralph during the final few turns in the course and sprinted ahead. I tried so hard to stay on Ronald's wheel, knowing that he'd probably be a faster sprinter than I, and just as I was starting to lose him, we came around the corner of the finish line and I saw Josh standing there, and was so excited! I finished in an hour and 27 minutes, shaving ten minutes off of my best time, and had an incredible amount of fun. Josh finished in an hour and eight minutes and likewise felt good about his time. Ralph finished a few seconds behind me, followed by the boy. Once I fully came through the finish line, Ronald gave me a high five and told Josh that I had 'carried' him up the mountain. Josh and I lingered at the top for a few minutes, waiting to see some of the preliminary results come in, before riding down the mountain and back to home. Josh and I have agreed that it would be interesting to see how we might do in a race for which we actually trained...

Click here for my Garmin stats.
Click here to view the official Race Results.

Posted by jennifer at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ Bogus Basin Climb ~

In my previous entry, where I described going on a road ride with my bike club up Bogus Basin, I neglected to mention that, in all of my years of cycling, I have not yet ridden up Bogus. This fact is rather shocking, considering that Bogus is one of the most popular road biking opportunities around Boise. Be that as it may, the prospect of riding Bogus on my road bike always seemed rather daunting to me... what with its almost 4,000 feet of climbing in 16 miles. Ironically, it was not the climb that I had found daunting, but the descent. It has been only fairly recently that I have developed sufficient confidence descending on a road bike, that I have been able to enjoy the experience.

And enjoy the experience I did! But first things first...

Click on the map to view the ride stats.

I realize now that this would be a good ride to use the "lap" function on the cyclecomputer, which would split the ride stats into different groups. For example, I would be interested in the stats specific to the climb and then specific to the descent, separated. Having the climb and descent grouped is okay, but it would be more meaningful to track my average speed climbing to the top, and then my average speed bombing down the mountain. Here, my average speed is 13.7 mph, which combines the ascent and descent and I don't find it particularly meaningful. Secondly, I also know that when people "time" themselves climbing Bogus, they start the timer at the stop sign at bottom of the hill. I had started my timer as I left my apartment. So while my moving time was 2 hours 49 minutes, that includes commuting through town.

That said, I do actually have specific stats for the climb. The display on the Garmin cyclecomputer is very difficult to read while riding, and so I've continued to use my old cyclecomputer (which has an excellent display) in addition to the Garmin. Because of this, I know that it took me an hour and a half to climb from the stop sign at the bottom of the hill to Bogus and that my average climbing speed was 9.9 mph. Not too shabby! I did the ride with Josh, and he has articulated that I was pushing a very good pace. If one considers last year's race results for the Bogus Basin Hill Climb, my time is nowhere near a winning speed, but everyone knows that race pace is significantly faster than recreational pace on a ride that one is doing for the very first time. The female who won last year's race did the climb in an hour and three minutes. And while I cannot fathom shaving off half an hour on my time for this year's race, I think I'm definitely mid-pack material.

Anyway, once I had climbed to the top, I felt very accomplished. I insisted that Josh take a photo of me holding my bike up, in victory, next to the Bogus Basin sign. In the photo at the beginning of this post, you may have noted my fashionable black cycling bolero....

Before leaving on the ride, Josh instructed me to carry along a windbreaker because descending from a mountain elevation of 6,000 feet during a cool evening is apparently freezing.

At this point in your reading, you may be confused by the fact that a fashionable cycling bolero is not the same thing as a windbreaker, wondering why I disobeyed instructions.

I'm sure we've all had reason to pause and wonder about why I do (and don't do) various things. Knowing that I have no ability to regulate my own temperature and am always either freezing or so hot that I'm going to pass out and die, you'd think that I would be a little smarter about having the optimal clothing choices. ...but no.

According to my cyclecomputer, it was 51 degrees at the top of Bogus, which is somewhat chilly. Now, imagine being covered in a layer of sweat at 6,000 feet, in the 51 degree temperature, the wind is blowing pretty strong from the west, the sun is setting, you're about to descend down the mountain (mostly in the shady side) at speeds between 20 and 34 mph, and you neglected to bring a windbreaker. But you are looking fashionable in your awesome bolero!

Needless to say, I was humbled by my failure to follow instructions.

Josh offered to let me wear his windbreaker. And at first, I declined the offer, reasoning that I had made my own mess of things, Josh should not have to pay for it.

But I was completely freezing.

And Josh is a big man with lots of insulating muscles. And he affirmed that he would be okay without the windbreaker. And I think that maybe he was concerned about my ability to navigate the descent safely if I was going into hypothermia.

So I accepted his windbreaker, very sheepishly.

Then I took off down the mountain.

And it was AWESOME!!! Why I was wary of descending this mountain on a road bike is now beyond me. It was so awesome and fun. The turns were super flow-ey and I got so many speed-induced adrenaline rushes. I was all smiles!

Of course, my feet went completely numb. So numb that it hurt to turn the pedals.

After we descended below the tree line, we pulled over to stomp the circulation back into our toes. Remarkably, only my feet were freezing - - the windbreaker had worked wonders for my core temperature. At this lower elevation that was more on the sunny (even though the sun was setting, it was a little sunny) side of the mountain, it was much warmer and I thought I would be just fine for the rest of the descent without the windbreaker. So I gave it back to Josh and got on the bike.

Not long into this part of the descent, my core temperature plummeted and I started shaking. Visibly shaking and Josh later said that he could see me shake.

We pulled over again and I regained possession of the windbreaker.

I felt like such an asshole for taking Josh's windbreaker. But he kept saying that he didn't need it. He's a trooper, and very wonderful.

The rest of the descent was awesome! I got my top speeds coming back into town and I was so excited about finding my new favorite ride.

I was also starving. It was past nine o'clock and I hadn't eaten dinner. I did that whole ride without having eaten. Certainly, I had consumed a sports gel on the ride, and Josh and I split one at the top of the mountain. But I had not eaten solid food in hours as was STARVING.

We dashed home and made microwavable pizzas and watched Iron Chef. I also decided to register for the race in a few months. And made plans to train climbing Bogus regularly. The end.

Posted by jennifer at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ swath of wild sunflowers ~

I was particularly excited to go for a mountain bike ride today after work. I am so looking forward to fall riding! The summer and its heat and blistering UV rays can get old after a while. I've also decided that I need to ride solo more often. Riding with people is great, but solo rides offer a more contemplative and self-focused experience.

I did a Tablerock ride today. There are challenges afforded in that neck of the foothills that are less common in the more westerly hills. Slippery, rocky sweeping climbs, an off camber switchback or two, and rock obstacles make good challenges for me. I'm at the point where I need to overcome some technical skill barriers and improve my confidence, and I won't be doing this if I keep riding the same old same old Military Reserve and Central Foothills trails. I think if I consistently spend time alone trying to master the terrain that gives me trouble, I will improve my skills. And I say "alone" because I can get flustered if I screw up on an obstacle around people - - but riding alone, I can try riding an obstacle over and over until I do it, without feeling self-conscious that someone might be watching me. This is another nice thing about the Tablerock trails, there aren't very many people on the trails.

That fall is here is evidenced by how my garden is dying, with the frost having arrived the day after I took the following photo of my flowers. I'm super excited about trying to have more of a garden next year. Now that everything is all wilted and dying, I think there's no more use in trying to be a farmer for a while.

Last Saturday, Josh and I did a ride up at Idaho City. I don't have any photos to share and it's been so long that I don't remember the stats. I believe it was around 20 miles. There were some pretty grueling climbs that we huffed and puffed up. I felt very satisfied with my effort on the climbs, making it up most of the really steep ones. At some point, we got caught in the middle of all of these ATV/hunting trails that criss-crossed over the mountains. We kept having to make arrows with sticks and rocks to mark our way because it was such a labyrinth of paths. I also saw a herd of elk. Afterwards, we had lunch in Idaho City.

On Sunday, I took Elizabeth up to Bogus for a training/practice ride. We did Deer Point, Elk Meadows, Mores Creek, and back along Ridge Road. It was a lot of fun and I was very impressed with Elizabeth's riding. It's also fun taking on the role of drill sergeant / coach. I said, "Elizabeth, you will ride this trail in your middle ring!" And she said, "Yes, Ma'am!" A salut would have been appropriate, but I think she was busy steering her bicycle.

Posted by jennifer at 9:16 PM | Permalink

~ catch up ~

This morning, despite not feeling my 100% due to a couple of tequila shots the previous night, I got up earlyish and went on a mountain bike ride with Elizabeth. This week, she got set up with clipless pedals and has developed a good quality enthusiasm for becoming a mountain biker. In discussions, we agreed that she needs to develop her legs so as to successfully bike up the mountains. To that end, I decided to take on the role of 'drill sergeant'. This morning we rode up Bogus and did a portion of Corrals. During the ride, I instructed her to put more back into it - - I determined the pace at which we would ride and encouraged her to keep up with me - - and on a couple of occasions on Bogus, I made her shift into a higher gear than what she was inclined to ride and had her exert additional effort. Once we got to the trailhead, she exclaimed that she couldn't believe that she got up there so fast and that now when she goes out she knows that she can ride harder and faster than she's been riding. I felt like a very accomplished drill sergeant. When we got to the spot on Corrals where we decided to turn around, we had a bit of a discussion about crashing - - as I've had a lot of experience in this area, I consider myself an expert on the subject and shared some of my wisdom:

• Most crashes occur when the rider does something stupid; therefore, one should ride skillfully and mindfully.
• When one is afraid of crashing, the chances of doing something stupid and crashing increase exponentially. As such, one should be relaxed, confident, and having fun.
• Most crashes result in only minor physical injuries, but a significant injury to one's confidence may develop.

Elizabeth recently crashed twice in the Military Reserve and was feeling a little nervous about the downhill on this ride. With some coaching, we agreed that she shouldn't be afraid of crashing and she then proceeded to bomb down the hill. At times, she was riding so fast that I had to exert some effort to keep up with her. On the fast section, we topped out at about 20mph and it was evident that Elizabeth was having a blast. I, too, was having a blast.

Last weekend, Josh and I did an awesome mountain bike ride at Bogus. We rode Deer Point, Elk Meadows, Mores Mountain, up some steep trail with switchbacks, and along the Face Trail. The Face was incredibly fun and it really made going up that steep trail worth the exertion. I had such a blast.

In other news, Josh and I have also decided to make war on the goatheads. On Saturday, we went to the Military Reserve and filled up eight large trash bags with goadhead plants. We worked up on the road leading from the dog park to the top of the one hill, at the border of where the goatheads are starting to encroach onto the trails. Once we realized the extent of the problem (and the futility of working in the fall, after the plants have littered the ground with a mind boggling number of goatheads), we decided to focus our efforts on plants that were still green, and still harboring goatheads.

Many of the plants were HUGE. I never before realized the extent of the goathead problem. They cover the hillsides and I would hate for them to get up into the trails. There are several groups that go out and pull goatheads. We're thinking we might join up. The real work to do will be in the springtime, though.

Posted by jennifer at 2:35 PM | Permalink

~ Bogus Basin Hike ~

The weather has been crazy for the past several days. In one week, it went from 100+ degrees, to under 70 degrees and torrential thunderstorms. At work, I'm fortunate to have an office with a window - - and last Wednesday and Thursday, I would be sitting at my desk with a view to the outside dark and storminess. There was thunder and lightning, and the rain came down in thick sheets. Very cool.

On Saturday, we weren't sure how the trails in the foothills would be for riding, so Josh and I made the trek up to Bogus for a hike. Despite the mountains being saturated with water, the trail conditions were good for hiking - - not at all muddy. It was also gorgeous outside. The temperature was in the 70s, and the mountain air felt crisp and invigorating. It was a tad chilly, but the chilliness felt wonderful (an excellent contrast to the scorching summer heat).

We hiked up Shindig and down Deer Point. I'm not sure what time we set out, but I estimate the hike took about an hour and twenty minutes.

Did I mention that it was beautiful? For the duration of the hike, we couldn't stop making comments to how nice it was outside. The colors were particularly vibrant, the plants were especially lush, and the sunlight perfect. It was an autumn sunlight - - bright, but not burning.

On the drive back to town, we saw a number of deer along the road. The last time we came down, we saw foxes.

Oh, and the last two times that we've driven up the mountain, we've seen this interesting fellow riding an old cruiser bike. He is in stark contrast to the more serious road cyclists doing the Bogus Basin climb - - wearing casual daily-life clothes (not cycling clothes), he rides up and down Bogus Basin on a rickety old green cruiser, with a messenger bag on his back.

Posted by jennifer at 11:54 AM | Permalink

~ Deer Point, Elk Meadows ~

I wanted to ride somewhere different last night - - tired of the same old, same old - - and I remembered that sixteen miles away is a mountain with loads of trails that I never ride. Ironicly, I make the trek up to Bogus to hike the trails somewhat regularly, and I always make a mental note to myself about how I should take my bike up - - but then my mental note gets lots amongst all of my other mental notes, and I continue riding the same old, same old foothills trails sixteen miles below. But then yesterday, I was checking out SWIMBA's website and saw that they were having a group ride at Bogus Basin and I recalled all of those mental notes in my brain about how I should ride those trails. And so I made it happen!

Josh and I are accustomed to setting out on rides later in the evening these days, to try and escape the heat and the blistering sun. Plus, we kinda have this after-work routine that involves dinner. As a result, we didn't get to the trailhead until about 8:00. A storm was moving in, so it was dark and blustery. Pretty cool, actually.

We rode Deer Point and Elk Meadows. Distance-wise, it was a short ride - - for one, I kept stopping to take photos in the poor light, and for two, we had to turn around prematurely because we weren't up for riding in the dark and because it seemed like there was a storm moving in.

Distance aside, the fun factor of this ride was excellent. Josh and I don't do much "MOUNTAIN biking" - - rather, we do a lot of hills and high desert riding. Here are some of my observations about mountain biking:

• Mountains are taller than hills,
• Because mountains are taller than hills, their trails tend to have a lot of switchbacks going up, to make it easier for hikers and bikers to reach the summit,
• Ridng around switchbacks is fun!
• Mountains have things like trees and bushes,
• Sometimes those trees and bushes on the mountains form a certain density, called a "forest",
• Riding through the forest is fun!

By the time that we were riding up Elk Meadows, there was a definite chill in the air. The sun was also starting to set. Feeling excited about future exploration of these trails, we turned around for a fun and fast downhill.

The main reason that we turned around, however, was not because of the chill or the impending darkness, but our bedtime. Josh and I are trying to do this morning workout routine. We've been surprisingly successful. We haven't made it everyday - - after all, sometimes shit happens and you can't get your butt to the gym at 6 o'clock in the morning - - but we continue to make it most days. Personally, I think this is making me a stronger rider - - getting a focused intensity on the spin bike in the morning is good preparation for an awesome fun evening bike ride to enjoy the outdoors.

Posted by jennifer at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ achey breaky body ~

As this day is Super Tuesday, I might as well begin the blog post by telling of my experience seeing Presidential Hopeful Barack Obama in Boise this past Saturday. For those who missed it, it's available here. Obama was not originally scheduled to speak in Idaho. Something about our mere 23 delegates and the heavy republicanness of the state may have compelled his campaign to go elsewhere. 'Elsewhere' was actually Utah, where the suddenly scheduled funeral of the Mormon President for the same day as Obama's pre-scheduled speech resulted in the campaign's reschedule to Idaho.

Obama was scheduled to speak at 8:30 a.m., with the doors to the stadium openning at 7:00. Logistically, it was difficult for me. The winter months have always proven to be particularly difficult for me in the way of getting out of bed. And on my days off, I really like sleeping in. While others I know got up at 5:00 a.m. to line up at the stadium, I remained in my comfy and cozy bed until the late hour of 6:45. I then trudged to the stadium in the snow and icy sidewalks, arriving around 7:20ish. Other people who go to a lot of mass-attended events have a better understanding that if one wants to attend an event that will be attended by a butt-load of people, that it is wise to show up really early. Personally, I'm not so enthused by these mass-attended events. So anyway, I arrived way late and the line was so incredibly long that there was little possibility that I could have gotten inside. Or, maybe I could have gotten inside, I have no idea. But, I do not particularly enjoy waiting in incredibly long lines, in the cold, when it is snowing, by myself. Not my idea of fun. And then I thought about the prospect of sitting in a swarm of 12,000 people in an enclosed space, and gave up on the event. Josh had his own little misadventure, and we met up and went to his place to watch the speech on live TV. Here are some blurry photos of the TV screen.

I must say that it was amazing when he came out and I realized that a presidential candidate was taking time in his schedule to come to little Boise, Idaho and speak to an overflowing stadium. Word on the street is that the stadium was at capacity (I think around 12,000 people) and that there were a lot of people who couldn't get in and stood outside during the event, and then plenty of other people, like me, who abandoned hope of getting inside and watched it on live television.

Later in the afternoon, Josh and I ventured up the mountain for some nordic skiing. As I have successfully indicated previously, Josh and I are novice skiers. When we arrived on the mountain, the wind was blowing fierce and threatened to ruin all skiing adventures. As a result, Josh and I had a conversation with the people at the lodge desk about what trails they would recommend. They advised us to go on the lower trails, particularly The Flush, to avoid the wind. And so we did. And it was a lot of fun. There were uphills and downhills, twists and turns. Josh and I both fell a number of times (at one point I fell rather hard and was concerned that I may have injured myself. But the snow was soft and all was fine. At several of the intersections of other trails, we were quite confused as to which direction we ought to travel, as the trail signs were not very meaningful. We later realized that we had gone way off track from where we were intending to ski and had skied the "most difficult" of the Lower Loop Trails. This would most likely explain some of my frustration at the steepness of some of the hills. I clearly need a skillz lesson, as I cannot grasp how one skies uphill without resorting to some rather awkward and clumsy movements. On one of the hills, I actually removed my skies and hiked up it. Below are some photos.

At some point nearing the end of our skiing adventure, the temperature dropped significantly, the clouds gathered overhead, and the wind picked up and caused the trees to sway and the snow upon them to crash to the ground. When we finished skiing, we returned to the lodge and sat for a while, eating some snacks. From the large window overlooking the parking lot, Josh and I noted that cars had formed a very long line to get back to Boise. We decided to wait a while for the traffic to dissipate. Fifteen minutes later, I realized that the bumper-to-bumper traffic had not moved. Everyone in the lodge speculated that there must be a crash on the road back to town. Incidentally, I am of the opinion that the one and only road leading between the mountain and Boise ought to be revised. As it is, in the winter it is quite dangerous, and the frequent car accidents cause significant traffic jams. After about 45 minutes of waiting, the cars seemed to be moving at a somewhat regular pace. It was, however, evident that everyone was trying to leave at the exact same time - - most likely as a result of the severe winter storm that had quickly picked up. I put my foot down and insisted that we leave, as I was hoping to avoid driving the road in the dark. I'm not super enthusiastic about driving dangerous icy mountain roads at night. So we get in the car and start heading down the mountain with the other hundreds and hundres of cars. Prior to the halfway mark, traffic stops. The wind was blowing hard, the snow was swirling around, and the roads were becoming ice-ified. We wait, and wait. We hypothesized that there must have been another car crash along the road, which wasn't surprising considering the road conditions. We waited about a half an hour before traffic moved about half a block, and then it stopped again for about 20 minutes, half a block later we waited for 15 minutes. The weather outside had become rather severe. It was completely dark. We could feel the car sway in the wind. The snow and the fog created a massive white out and it was impossible to see more than 10 feet ahead. When the traffic finally got to moving, the conditions outside were so terrible that I existed in a high level of anxiety for the duration of the drive into town. It took us over two hours to drive 16 miles. It was horrid. Horrid, horrid, horrid, and it made me feel reluctant about going up there ever again. Ick.

At present, my body feels like poop. In addition to being sore from the exertion of skiing a "most difficult" trail and falling on said "most difficult" trail, I am also in pain because yesterday while I was walking to work, I slipped on some black ice and landed with the full force of my body's weight onto my elbow and hip bone. I am longing for the summer.

Posted by jennifer at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ thus doing before death ~

The rush of traversing the snowy hillside, the thrill of hitting the jump and landing, and the amazingnitude of riding my board fast fast fast in a manner akin to surfing down the bowl shaped spaces between the ridges. Ah, but I am still feeling the exhiliaration from yesterday evening. Josh and I arrived at the snow resort at about 5:30 in the evening yesterday, which was about the time that the night lights were switched on. We rode the front side of the mountain, in total satisfaction, until 10:00 pm. The high winds of the day had blown the fresh powder around in ways heretofore unexperienced by Joshifern. Because of those winds, the ridges lacked the fresh powder but had gained some humps all their own.

As always, the first several runs were for the purpose of getting into one's snowboarding groove. Once gotten, our groove sustained us for hours and hours. Several runs into the evening, Josh and I were on the four-person ski lift all by our romantic selves, approaching the top with the stunning view of Boise's evening lights in the horizon, and we were examining all possible run choices. We looked directly down and decided to try going down the "bowl" which is normally used for snowboarding tricks and stunts. The winds had blown over many of the jumps and no one appeared to have used this bowl for some time. Carving fresh tracks into the bowl, we quickly discovered the fun that could be had of picking up some good speed, approaching a hilly hump, and trying to jump up and over it. Josh was able to clear a good distance, but I couldn't get my speed high enough to do anything spectacular (funny, with the winds of last night, my mere 110 lbs provided me with a good deal of difficulty in achieving my speed and jumping goals). My aim with this particular jump was to arrive at the top (which required my aiming straight downhill, forcing all of my weight forward, and hunching down to reduce the effects of the powerful headwind, and then completing a minihop as I approached the top of the sudden hump). After getting to the top, I would quickly turn right and go straight down from that to a mini pipe area, where I would play around and experience the delight of pure magical snowboarding (with the dim pink lighting casting shadows across the terrain, and the wind blowing ghostly snow fog around). Then we headed deep into a section surrounded by trees with no lighting, and caught a jump. This jump was amazing. The headwind was buffered by the ridges around us and the trees, so I was able to pick up enough speed that when I hit the jump, I was able to catch a respectable amount of "air", table my board off, and land perfectly. It was amazing - - I haven't done much jumping like this before, and my success at it was awesome. There were several times when I caught so much air that I just had to squeal in delight as I felt several seconds go by with myself and my board suspended in the air. At one point, after completing this awesome jump, I looked back to try to watch Josh on the jump, except that my snowboard was continuing foward and I flipped over and sustained a good amount of whiplash. (It actually hurts pretty badly today).

From this area, we located a great way to cross over several other runs and ridges to get to the Sunshine run. Now, Sunshine is normally full of a lot of beginner types, so it's usually not so fun (what with the almost being run into by people who can't control their fiberglass). However, last night it was empty. And Sunshine, while definately an intermediate run, has some steepy potential. Well me, having the whole run almost to myself, I had an opportunity which I usually do not have: the ability to go completely bananas! I let my board, as they say, rip and was carving these amazing turns, going really fast - - I couldn't see all that well, the lights are bright, but the trees and the snow just cast such dark shadows everywhere, that I just had to abandon my rational mind and let go - - so I let go and rode fast and hard and it was so.much.fun! My legs were my suspension, and whenever I hit mini humps that I couldn't see, my knees did a little sproingy action and I was just flying. When I go as fast as I was last night, my turns send me a little bit more parallel to the ground than at a slower speed. As I turn, the carving action leans by body over, and were I to reach my hand out perpendicular to my body, I could graze my hand along the snow. And then to the catrack back to the lift - - it's a decently long catrack, and I was having such a need for speed all last night, that I would hunker down low to the ground to reduce the effects of the headwind (also, I felt a bit safer that way, so that if I were to crash going so fast, my whole body was closer to the ground and I surmised that I could do more of a somersault instead of a jerky hard fall), and I was going fast. I'm not normally such a speed demon, indeed, I can be something of a 'fraidypants....but because it was so dark, I simply could not see the danger.

We left at 10:00, and because the roads were icy and slippery, I was driving quite slowly down. We arrived back in town at about 11:00, and went immediately to O'Michael's pub for some beers and food. We walked in wearing our snowboarding base clothing, you know, not sexy, and saw that the pub was filled with people who appeared to have been skiing or snowboarding. It was nice to not be the only ones wearing our base layers. We sat by the fire to warm up, had a good pint, and consumed some greasy food. We discussed our snowboarding adventure, describing it as surfing and got onto a conversation about doing things before death. Surfing, being something that I would like to do. Skydiving, rock climbing, and bungie jumping being activities which I do NOT want to ever do. What about going to outerspace? Yes, Josh and I want to travel to outer space. I said that I would also like to do some deep sea exploration in a submarine.

Posted by jennifer at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ Bogus Star Party ~

There are several adventures and projects that I have directed my attention to remember as needing a blog post. I have some catching up to do in the way of my personal reporting. I have been busy lately... Screaming mad busy. Anyhome, I have selected the Bogus Basin Star Party as the first item on my list to recount.

The Star Party, which took place a week ago last Friday at Bogus Basin Mountain Resort, was (as might be inferred from the name) a party to celebrate the stars. There was a variety of astronomical nerds and aficionados, including their star gazing equipment, in attendance. The organizers chose, from all of the music in the world, the soundtrack to the Star Wars films to be the audio experience for the evening. Josh and I drove up to the Lodge in time to enjoy the last bit of a spaghetti feed. We quickly ate our overpriced and rather stale spaghetti and rushed to join a large group of people for a nature hike. The nature hike was annoying. The group of nature hikers had gathered next to some trees and were listening to a lecture on fire safety. Smokey the Bear was on hand to give a thumbs up to good answers to the fire safety questions posed to the attendees. At some point, my glory was stolen as Josh articulated to the group the answer to a fire safety question that I had mumbled so that no one could hear me except for him. Smokey the Bear provided Josh with a thumbs up which should have been mine! Some time later, while the group was still discussing fire safety, I got really bored. Josh and I wandered off a ways and took some photos of the view.

We rejoined the group once it continued the hike. This, however, was short-lived because they stopped again for another dull lecture, on some subject such as the solar power lighting installation at the resort. I suppose that solar power and fire safety are interesting topics, however, the manner in which they were presented in lecture format I found painfully tedious. At the point of our maximum tedium, we quit the group and went on our own hike. It was beautiful. We saw some lovely flowers and plants and stopped to watch the sunset. It was almost dark by the time that we returned to the Lodge. The party section of the Star Party wasn't quite underway, so Josh and I located some beers and drank them over some witty banter. When our beers were done, we made our way to the telescopes and proceeded to examine various objects in the night sky. Unfortunately, the objects were way too far away for the telescopes to pick up very much, so they appeared as not more than a dot. Nevertheless, it was a neat way to spend the evening.

Posted by jennifer at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)